The first colonists to Mars, desperate for survival, deal with a polite alien and a U.S. president dead for sixty years.
Assessment:
Plot: The author of Black Sky Voyage skillfully brings together several plotlines in a satisfying manner. The fast-paced story will engage readers as it pans between many characters and several situations.
Prose: Taylor’s writing is vivid and descriptive. The characters are described energetically with clean, vibrant prose. However, the dialogue is often choppy and stilted.
Originality: This novel is both relevant and promising. More than that, Taylor’s futuristic imagery is plausible, intriguing, and a bit frightening.
Character Development: Taylor’s characters are painted realistically, even those who are extraterrestrial. The presidential protagonist and his aggressive behavior prove frustrating throughout the novel.
Date Submitted: April 10, 2018
(Reviewed: April, 2018)
Revolving largely around a group of ill-fated astronauts forced to try to survive on Mars, Tony Taylor’s latest novel (after 2014’s The Darkest Side of Saturn) is highly satisfying archetypal science fiction.
The novel is separated into different chronological sections. The first segment follows the life and death of Logan Styles, not only the first U.S. president to visit space but also a leader whose focus on space exploration (and colonization) ultimately got him murdered in space by close-minded and greedy political enemies.
The narrative then jumps ahead a few generations to Styles’ great granddaughter, Laura Styles Halford, the physician onboard a space station orbiting Mars. Accompanying her are her husband Charles, who is a life-support systems expert, and another married couple, Alyssa and Max. When exceedingly bad luck and significant mechanical failures put their lives in grave danger, they must attempt to somehow get to an unmanned base on the planet. But things get complicated when a seemingly healthy and ageless Logan Styles—dead for more than 60 years—shows up as an emissary of sorts for a highly advanced alien race.
Like classic science fiction of the ‘70s, the story is powered by mind-blowing concepts regarding humankind and its place in the cosmos, a relentless sense of wonder, and a cautious optimism for our continued evolution and future. Tonally, it also has a decidedly ‘70s feel—especially after the group decides that since they’re all going to die, they should have a “going away party” replete with mind-altering drugs and sex with one another (a la Heinlein’s The Number of the Beast). But it’s the underlying sense of hope that will remind readers of works by authors like Arthur C. Clarke, Frederik Pohl, and Larry Niven.
Solid character development, nonstop action, and more than a few jaw-dropping plot twists make this impossible to put down —a highly appealing blend of Andy Weir’s The Martian and Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
